[MilCom] Fw: Aero show in Vegas

[Mickey]

October 09, 2005
Vegas air show, s'il vous plait?
Southern Nevada would steal some thunder from Paris
By Richard N. Velotta <velotta at lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
Sacre bleu!
First, Las Vegas takes Paris' most impressive icon, the Eiffel Tower, and 
turns it into the centerpiece for a Strip resort.
Now, it's trying to steal business from the Paris Air Show.
That, at least, is one of the upshots of a proposal by Las Vegas-based 
AeroQuest USA that is gaining momentum.
Chief executive Bill Clarke has assembled a team that includes some of the 
driving forces behind the World Market Center to develop an aerospace 
showcase at the proposed Ivanpah Airport south of Las Vegas.
Using the World Market Center -- the new project growing downtown where 
furniture concepts are displayed for the industry's buyers and sellers -- as 
a model, AeroQuest is gathering support from aircraft manufacturers and 
their suppliers to bring the world to Southern Nevada to see all their 
innovations.
Included in the plan would be air shows once or twice a year that developers 
hope would someday rival the Paris Air Show, the premiere aviation event 
that draws thousands of spectators to France and worldwide interest.
"It would be like the World Market Center and the (Las Vegas Motor) 
Speedway," said Randy Walker, director of the Clark County Department of 
Aviation, who said county officials were first approached about the proposal 
about a year ago.
"Las Vegas would be an ideal place to do something like this because we have 
the hotel infrastructure in place to do it," he said.
If Southern Nevada could host an air show that rivaled the Paris version, 
project insiders believe it could lure supporting businesses, including 
avionics and other high-tech companies that would diversify the area's 
tourism-dependent economy.
The Paris Air Show is held every other year, including an event earlier this 
year that attracted 480,000 visitors over seven days. There were 206 
official delegations from 88 countries in attendance; the show had 1,926 
exhibitors, 238 aircraft on display and 4,000 accredited journalists.
The next Paris Air Show is scheduled in June 2007.
Lisa Mayo-DeRiso of Mayo & Associates, a consultant who worked on the World 
Market Center project for six years and has been with Clarke and his team 
for three, is serving as spokeswoman for the group.
She said there are several parallels with the furniture showcase that, by 
most accounts, is being credited with providing an enormous shot in the arm 
for downtown Las Vegas.
"It turned out even better than I had ever imagined," Mayo-DeRiso said of 
the World Market Center.
Construction and design already have begun on other buildings within the 
World Market Center campus, but the first structure -- a 12-story building 
just south of the Spaghetti Bowl off Interstate 15 -- was the site of a 
gathering of an estimated 70,000 people in July. The arrival of the WMC is 
being credited as one of the reasons Las Vegas' tourism numbers are up 
dramatically in 2005.
Mayo-DeRiso said putting the pieces together for an aeronautics showcase at 
the Ivanpah airport involved contacting aircraft manufacturers from around 
the world, including Boeing, Airbus Industrie, Lockheed Martin and Embraer, 
as well as the support companies that develop products for the manufacturing 
of aircraft -- the makers of engines, high-tech navigational components and 
aircraft interior materials.
Clarke enlisted the assistance of UNLV's business and engineering experts. 
Team members also are meeting with government leaders for help, working at 
the local, state and federal levels.
One potential opportunity is a federal grant program.
Congress appropriated $1 million to study the feasibility of developing an 
international air trade show, a move made in 2004 in response to France's 
reluctance to assist the United States with its war effort in Iraq and the 
American response of pulling resources from the Paris Air Show.
Southern Nevada has some tough competition for federal grant money since 
Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and numerous air 
defense contractors, has similar aspirations to showcase the industry.
But Mayo-DeRiso and Walker point out that Southern Nevada has its own 
strengths, including the ability to play host to large numbers of people at 
one time, a top-notch military presence in Nellis Air Force Base and acres 
of developable land.
Walker noted that the development of Ivanpah is in its infancy --  
environmental clearances haven't been approved yet for the proposed airport 
about 35 miles south of Las Vegas and local leaders say they don't expect to 
need relief from overcrowding at McCarran International until around 2017.
"They have a pretty big vision," Walker said of the AeroQuest proposal. 
"Even if they put it all together, they can't move forward until we have 
permission to build something out there. But it makes sense to agree to sit 
down and talk about it now because it's something that really has 
potential."
Richard N. Velotta can be reached at (702) 259-4061 or at velotta@ 
lasvegassun.com.